KAIPTC holds 9th joint graduation ceremony; hosts Sir Sam Jonah as Special Guest of Honour
Accra, 1st February, 2021: Thursday, 29th January 2021 was a day of joy and excitement for the graduates of the Executive, Regular, and Weekend cohorts of the Master of Arts in Conflict, Peace and Security, the Master of Arts in Gender, peace and Security, and certainly for the first two graduates of the Doctor of Philosophy in International Conflict Management Programme.
Totaling 140, the students of the ninth graduation ceremony of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre were from seven (7) countries namely Cameroun, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda.
Delivering the welcome remarks under the theme ‘Providing skills to meet business and human security needs in uncertain times’, the Commandant of KAIPTC, Major General Francis Ofori pointed out the vulnerabilities of countries and economies to uncertainties, with the COVID-19 pandemic being a clear example.
He drew the nexus between human and business security needs in times of uncertainties, noting that “the current uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every dimension of human security; economic, food, health, environmental, personal or community security. A breach in satisfying any human security need, tampers with the existing business security. We have witnessed many business giants topple helplessly, while small scale businesses have risen to fame effortlessly during this pandemic. This reinforces the call for a people-centred, comprehensive, context-specific, prevention-oriented, protection and empowerment approach to ensuring human and business security needs”.
The ceremony was attended by two icons of industry – Sir (Dr.) Samuel Esson Jonah, CEO of Jonah Capital, who was the Special Guest of Honor and Mrs. Patricia Obo-Nai, the CEO of Vodafone Ghana who graced the occasion as the Special Guest Speaker.
Reiterating the impact of the pandemic on fabric of society and the priorities of employers when recruiting, Sir Jonah said; “the emergence of Covid-19 has brought about the need for rapid and radical changes to the way we live and work. There is no longer “business as usual” and as such firms will be looking to recruiting and working with employees whose skills and competencies are matched with the exigencies of the period”. And these skills, he added, include flexibility and adaptability, technological adaptability, communication and emotional intelligence, creativity and innovation, and leadership skills.
Touching on a number of issues, Sir Jonah spoke about the exploding population growth in Africa in the last three decades, which in comparison to other European countries, has seen a marginal increase. This bulge, accompanied by limited or no access to education, employment, healthcare and other basic necessities, presents an inimical threat to society, and an unproductive throng that often are unable to contribute to the development and growth of African nations. He further drew attention to the connection between unemployment, the threat to peace and security and its negative impact of making the nation an unattractive destination for investment.
He touched on the issue of governance, highlighting corruption, weak systems, and general distrust among the citizenry. He noted that; “as we consider how to develop skills to meet business and human security needs, we need to start thinking about what actions we can take to address the shortcomings in our governance to be able to engender confidence in these investors. We can no longer be complacent, because complacency is complicity, and the enemy of progress”.
He charged the graduates to let their MAs and PhDs make the difference, stating that, the country has the human and material resources to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens, and that ‘the right mix of political leadership and citizen participation is all that is needed”.
On her part, the CEO of Vodafone, Mrs. Patricia Obo-Nai admonished the students to build collaborative relationships, to be tech savy, adaptable, and data literate in order to meet the business and human security needs in uncertain times.
The graduation event was held at the Burma Hall at Burma Camp, and was streamed live for Facebook.
For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on +233 302 718200 ext 1104/1203. You can find the KAIPTC on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube as: @Kaiptcgh and on instagram @Kaiptc. You can further find out more about the KAIPTC on our website: www.kaiptc.org.
About the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre:
The Ghana Ministry of Defence (MoD) established the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in 1998 and commissioned it in 2004. The purpose was to build upon and share Ghana’s five decades of internationally acclaimed experience and competence in peace operations with other states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region and the rest of Africa. This was in recognition of the need for training military, police and civilian men and women to meet the changing demands of multidimensional peace operations. The Centre is one of the three (3) Peacekeeping Training Centres of Excellence mandated by the ECOWAS to offer training in peacekeeping and peace support operations (PSO) in Africa.
The Centre delivers training courses in three thematic areas; Peace Support Operations, Conflict Management and Peace and Security Studies and also runs Masters and PhD programmes in same. The KAIPTC has a world-class research department that undertakes research in the thematic areas in Peace and Security. Located in Accra, Ghana, the KAIPTC is an internationally recognized institution and has to date trained and tutored over 21, 496 participants and students since its inception.
KAIPTC is a gender-sensitive organization and committed to gender equality. Following the launch of its gender policy in 2014, the Centre has mainstreamed gender into its policies and programmes, and integrates same in its focal areas, namely training, research and postgraduate education. The Centre has developed a Sexual Harassment policy and fully oriented employees on same. It has also provided a Nursing and Childcare Centre and instituted a paternity leave policy, all with the aim to create a conducive work environment at KAIPTC.